The latest thing I am trying is the Egoscue method – ‘Health through Motion.‘
If nothing else, I quite like the philosophy. In summary, it goes something like this.
- The human body is beautifully engineered and designed to work in harmony.
- The human body is designed for motion. The early hunter-gatherers didn’t spend several hours in a chair
- Modern life has meant we spend a lot of time sitting down – hunched over a car wheel, desk, computer. This means that certain muscles become atrophied.
- If some muscles become weak because they are not activated – then other muscles carry a greater burden. This can lead to dysfunction.
- The body starts to lose symmetry – with problems such as everted feet, rolling hips and the back losing its natural arc.
With these dysfunctions, we start to get pain in different parts of the body. If our shoulders are weak, it can cause problems in our hips. If our hips are misaligned, it can cause problems in the knee e.t.c.
When we get knee pain, we seek to treat the pain – with painkillers, surgery and the like. But, this is only treating the symptoms and not tackling the cause which are the various dysfunctions in different parts of the body.
In philosophy, it is a continuation of physiotherapy which is seeking to strengthen certain muscles. However, Egoscue adds more exercises – which work on realigning parts of the body. One exercise is simply lying on the floor with legs on a chair at 90 degrees – the aim is to feel the hips and back sinking into the floor.
Another part of the philosophy is that the patient has to take responsibility for his health. It is doing the right exercises, looking after posture that you will get better long-term health. It is not just a matter of going to a doctor and waiting for the right pill and drug.
Does it work?
I only started a few days ago, but I get a good feeling and hope it will work. The good weather is certainly a strong motivating factor to try and get back on the bike. When it’s wet and cold in February, being off the bike didn’t seem so bad.
If nothing else, it is quite a thought-provoking read. We all spend hours sitting and can easily get into bad postures. Even as I write this in a cafe, I am getting up after 30 minutes to walk around.
Related
- Egoscue method at Amazon
Non-economic Note – New Economic Book
Whilst I am making links to Amazon. I have a new economics book published.
- What Would Keynes do? – with fascinating questions like “If you like drinking beer – what is the optimal quantity of beer to drink?”